Pyrois is a "Special" Rank Ether Attacker "Etheric Other", who is given out for free to all players at hit 3.0, being the first time the Proxies go out and fight in battle themselves.
They offer:
Up to 4 different Ultimates with different uses
A quick-swap friendly playstyle with auto-casted skills when changing Agents
Extremely high damage that matches or exceeds that of most Season 2 damage dealers
Flexible build and team options owing to a free Sol Exuvia and general accessibility
Despite being a free Agent, Pyrois is a force to be reckoned with, setting a new floor for what a 3.0 damage dealer can do.
Build Overview
W-Engines
Best in SlotSol Exuvia
AlternativeEmpty
F2PEmpty
Drive Discs
4-pcThe Sky Ablaze
2-pcWoodpecker Electro
Drive Disc Stats
Partition 4: CRIT Rate | CRIT DMG | ATK %
Partition 5: PEN Ratio | Ether DMG Bonus | ATK %
Partition 6: ATK %
Substats
CRIT Rate
CRIT DMG | ATK %
ATK | PEN
Best Teams
Pyrois can work as a general Attacker that slots into the two standard shells of:
Pyrois | Stunner | Support
Pyrois | Support | Support
As they are very reliant on their Ultimates, anything that can help them get more Decibels or have more uses of it makes for a good match.
Agent Synergies
Dialyn - Although Pyrois' Ultimate is lower cost that others and so Dialyn's conversion is less valuable from a Decibel standpoint, it's still an obscenely strong ability on top of Dialyn's own buff offering.
Ju Fufu - She may not be as good as Dialyn, but as her buffs are targeted to Chain Attacks and Ultimates and her Decibel cap increase and refund work with Pyrois, Ju Fufu is still a great pick.
Nicole - As far as Supports go in terms of buff value for Ether Attackers, Nicole is among the top. With Pyrois' EBA4 casting automatically on swap, this makes it even easier to sustain her debuffs.
Sunna - A well rounded Support with good Daze, damage contribution and strong buffs that synergise well with Pyrois' high focus on in-stun burst.
Astra Yao - Considering that Pyrois gets additional Decibels on Chain Attacks and Astra provides plenty, she ends up supplying both high-value buffs and can make for easier resource management.
Although the above Agents work best, Pyrois can still do very well with many others, like Zhao or Trigger.
Pyroise does have a slight preference to Stunners that don't need to on-field for too long so as to have the time to build Decibels between stuns, but the raw multipliers on their skills make up for it regardless.
Best W-Engines
Sol Exuvia - Pyrois' signature is both a completely free W-Engine and their best-in-slot. The unconditional CRIT Rate is incredibly helpful and the RES Ignore is a very strong, mostly unsaturated multiplier that's effectively always up.
No other W-Engine is comparable to its performance, nor is there a need for alternatives as all players would have this, so it's the only option worth considering.
Best Drive Discs & Stats
Drive Discs
A 4-piece The Sky Ablaze is Pyrois' best pick. Although Puffer Electro can work, as the lower Decibel cost can allow for full uptime in 2 Ultimate stun rotations, it's still far worse in performance at equvialent substats.
As for 2-piece, Woodpecker Electro is best if missing out on CRIT Rate, of which 72% is needed (57% if with Nicole). Otherwise:
Branch & Blade Song
Chaotic Metal | Shining Aria
Astral Voice | Hormone Punk
...are all valid options.
Stats
Mainstats
Partition 4: CRIT Rate | CRIT DMG | ATK %
The priority is CRIT Rate if not capped out, but considering Sol Exuvia provides an unconditional 20% bonus, hitting the threshold isn't as demanding as other characters.
In which case, CRIT DMG will often pull out ahead, but if not running any Flat ATK buffers (e.g. on a Pyrois | Dialyn | Nicole team), then ATK % can be a more valuable option.
Partition 5: PEN Ratio | Ether DMG Bonus | ATK %
All 3 D5 picks are valid. In a neutral environment, PEN Ratio is likely to be best owing to Pyrois' extensive self-buffs, but this falls behind when running DEF Shred (e.g. Nicole) or against half-DEF bosses.
Ether DMG Bonus or ATK % then would be better, with which is ideal varying depending on the team and stat saturation.
Partition 6: ATK %
Skill Priority
Core Passive | Ultimate | Basic Attack
EX Special
Assist
Dodge
Mindscapes
Since Pyrois is guaranteed to get all of their Mindscapes, it's expected that all players have them on at all times.
Mindscape 1
M1 Shadows of Twilight Past provides:
1000 Decibels when entering the battlefield
8% CRIT Rate
The Decibels on start are a baseline requirement to be able to open with a Lower Branch - Ultimate and the unconditional CRIT Rate makes Pyrois easier to build.
Mindscape 2
M2 Blazing Cavalry provides:
1500 Decibels when using Lower Branch - Ultimate (180s CD)
1000 increase to Pyrois' Decibel Limit
The Decibel refund helps ensure Pyrois isn't losing out on starting resources after buffing at the start of a fight, and since they ideally wants to fit in multiple Ultimates in a stun, being able to go into it with a higher cap is incredibly useful.
How to Play
Unique Mechanics & Passives
Pyrois has a resource called Solar Prominence, tracked via a gauge underneath their portrait. It has a cap of 60, with 30 being given on entering the battlefield and 0.5 building passively every second.
Most of Pyrois' attacks will also generate it, when striking targets.
This gauge can be consumed by an enhanced Basic Attack for heavy damage.
Unlike previous Agents, Pyrois also has an Ultimate cost of 2000 Decibels, as well as 4 distinct variations.
Additional Ability
It's activated when another character in your squad is a Stun or Support character. It gives a 40% CRIT DMG boost to Pyrois and generates an additional 300 Decibels whenever their Chain Attack is used.
Skills
Basics
Pyrois has 2 Basics:
A standard, 3-part Basic Attack string that has high Solar Prominence build on the final hit
A 4-part enhanced Basic Attack string that consumes Solar Prominence (EBA)
Their standard Basic is used as filler while on-fielding, whereas the EBA can only be used at 30+ Solar Prominence by holding down the Basic Attack button.
That doesn't mean it uses it all up, as each sequence of its string has a different multiplier and resource consumption rate. EBA1 and 2 use little (1.5 and 2 respectively) but are very weak and should be avoided, whereas EBA3 and 4 demand a lot more (14.6 and 11.8 respectively) but deal high damage.
EBA3 and 4 uses make up a sizable portion of Pyrois damage out-of-stun over the course of a fight and are also integrated into their stun combos.
This is easy to do as other than Pyrois' regular Special and the standard Basic Attack, all skills can link into EBA3 if resources allow.
The skill can be integrated into combos without much issue as after starting an EBA3, swapping to another Agent will have Pyrois always follow through to an EBA4.
Ultimate
The 4 Ultimates that Pyrois has are split into sides: Upper, Lower, Left and Right, pertatining to the directions a player has to press to use them. All Ultimates lead to an attack but with differing extra effects:
Upper Branch - Ultimate
Pyrois enters the Mirage state for 21 seconds. This grants a 40% CRIT DMG boost to Ultimates against Stunned enemies (this applies to the Upper Ultimate itself on cast) and allows Pyrois to loop EBA4 back into EBA3.
It deals decent damage and builds 30 Solar Prominence, making it a great combo starter for when enemies are stunned, setting up buffs for other Ultimates and giving the resources needed to EBA.
Lower Branch - Ultimate
Pyrois enters the Sunflare state for 200 seconds, which:
Increases DMG by 40%
Increases Energy Generation Rate by 15%
Allows for their EX to generate 10 Solar Prominence upon a successful parry
As 1000 Decibels are given freely from M1, this is an "opener" Ultimate of sorts that's used at the very start of a fight. The long buff duration means it does not need to be re-applied.
Damage aside, Energy Generation Rate is distinct from Energy Regen, increasing both the latter's effect and the energy gained from all attacks, making it especially useful.
Left Branch - Ultimate
If the enemy is Contaminated, then it will deal a burst of damage on Heavy Attack. This is conditional on having a Wind Agent in the team or fighting against bosses that self-apply Windswept, as Contamination is dependent on it.
It's best avoided, and even in situations where a target may be Windswept, resources are usually better spent on Lower or Right Branch Ultimates.
Right Branch - Ultimate
On stunned enemies, it will pause the stun timer for 3 seconds - this is roughly how long the skill takes to cast - and then end with a Totalize.
This is distinct from Hugo's, as while it does immediately end the stunned state, it does not scale with time, and is instead a fixed multiplier of 2250%. The ludicrously high scaling makes this Pyrois' strongest Ultimate, but it's used only at the end of a stun to close out a burst window.
If only having Decibels to single Ultimate in stun, Right Branch should be prioritised over Upper Branch.
To summarise:
Use Lower Branch - Ultimate at the start of a fight to buff Pyrois.
When stun arrives, use Upper Branch - Ultimate for damage and to set-up for...
...Right Branch - Ultimate to be used as a way to close out a stun.
Left Branch - Ultimate is best avoided unless there are Contaminated enemies and one is overflowing in Decibels.
Chain Attack
Pyrois' Chain Attack distinguishes itself from others as it has an incredibly high damage multiplier, putting it on par with Evelyn's. Between the general Decibel bonuses and the extra 300 it generates owing to the Additional Ability, it's a strong skill.
As Pyrois does tend to open stuns with their Upper Branch - Ultimate, the forced Chain trigger means they aren't able to get double Chains, but getting at least 1 is ideal.
Specials
Pyrois has 2 Specials:
Fading Rays, a weak attack that's used when at under 40 energy (regular Special)
Assault Directive, an automatic follow-up to Ultimate and EX (auto Special)
While their regular Special is best avoided, their auto Special will always happen after an Ultimate or EXs with no player input being required. This is a minor damage add, but still useful.
Then there's EX Sun's Halo, costing 40 energy and unleashing a hard-hitting series of attacks that generates a significant amount of Solar Prominence.
It has a parry property, and given that the Lower Branch - Ultimate allows for it to generate an additional 10 Solar Prominence on counter, it has the highest single resource build value out of all their skills.
This makes it useful to use both in and out-of-stun for damage and resources respectively.
Dodges & Assists
Neither of these skills are all that noteworthy, although Pyrois can benefit from frequent Assist Follow-Ups to help accumulate Decibels quickly enough
Rotations
Pyrois' damage comes from EBA3-4 casts and Ultimate use, so optimising their use in critical periods is part of their skill expression.
A general gameplan approach would be:
Open with Lower Branch - Ultimate to enter the Sunflare state and activate its buffs
Spend Solar Prominence on EBA3-4s (avoid EBA1-2s or overcapping) by making use of shortcuts.
Use EX for resources, ideally on enemy attacks to get the Solar Prominence parry bonus.
When enemies are stunned, open with an Upper Branch - Ultimate, then end with a Right Branch - Ultimate.
Use Chain Attacks, EBAs and EXs during a stun for resources and damage.
If there are Wind Agents in the team so that the enemy can be contaminated, Left Branch - Ultimate may see use out-of-stun.
Try to maximise the amount of Decibels on Pyrois by making use of Assists where able, as going in with enough to sustain 2 Ultimates is best.
A stun combo with Pyrois | Sunna | Nicole would have the following structure:
Pyrois is a "Special" Rank Ether Attacker "Etheric Other", who is given out for free to all players at hit 3.0, being the first time the Proxies go out and fight in battle themselves.
Ultimates with different uses
Sol Exuvia and general accessibility
